This invention relates to a hand-operated home knitting machine, and more particularly to a collapsible single flat bed home knitting machine in which a needle bed can be collapsed for facilitating transportation thereof.
A hand-operated knitting machine for domestic use is conventionally constructed as a single flat bed knitting machine which has a single straightened needle bed with a plurality of knitting needles such as latch needles being mounted for individual longitudinal movement in side by side relationship therein. Such a knitting machine now available in the market is typically about 112 cm long, 20 cm wide and 10 cm high, and has a weight of about 2.3 kg or so, when taken with a cover set on the needle bed in preparation for transportation of the machine. This considerable length will obviously have a bad effect on transportation facilities of the machine by a user, especially of a woman.
A collapsible knitting machine having a collapsible or foldable needle bed would facilitate transportation of the machine. A collapsible needle bed, however, may have a bad effect on the traverse of a carriage across the needle bed where it does not present an exactly straightened linear passage for the carriage. A conventional connector or joint structure such as a joint structure that employs one or more hinges which pivotally connect two or more needle bed parts or sections to form a collapsible needle bed may not provide such a straightened passage as will assure a satisfactorily smooth movement or traverse of the carriage on the straightened needle bed. Besides, either the size of the hinges or the space distance between adjacent knitting needles may be considerably limited since a hinge must be disposed within a spacing between two adjacent knitting needles so as not to interfere with the adjacent needles.